Novell (not SCO) owns UNIX, says jury

A federal jury has decided that UNIX is owned by Novell – not SCO.

But no, this does not mark the end of SCO’s epic legal battle against the Linux industry.

On Tuesday, the AP reports, after a trial in Salt Lake City, Utah, a jury ruled that Novell still controls the copyrights to UNIX despite a 15-year-old deal that transfered certain other UNIX rights to an earlier incarnation of the Utah-based SCO.

“Novell is very pleased with the jury’s decision confirming Novell’s ownership of the Unix copyrights, which SCO had asserted to own in its attack on Linux,” Novell said in a statement posted to its webpage. “Novell remains committed to promoting Linux, including by defending Linux on the intellectual property front.”